


Coward

by mneiai



Category: DCU, Injustice 2, Injustice: Gods Among Us
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 03:45:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10868388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mneiai/pseuds/mneiai
Summary: At some point, Hal had gotten scared....





	Coward

**Author's Note:**

> Mixing on of the Injustice endings with some Injustice 2 info that's out now to come up with a potential post-Injustice 2 for Hal.
> 
> Unbeta'd, per usual.

At some point after getting the Yellow ring, Hal started to think of himself as a coward. It was a shocking revelation, when he took the time to digest it--a concept he'd never associated with himself before. 

As he stood in the sciencell, waiting on his inevitable execution, it was all he could dwell on.

Because he wanted to hold his head high as they came for him, to take him to his private trial with the Guardians. He wanted to spit in their faces and tell them he'd never betray the Sinestro Corps. But...he couldn't. His life was flashing before his eyes and he realized he was _scared_ to see this be the end of it. He was terrified he'd never get the chance to repent.

He didn't hear about the breakout until after his "rehabilitation". Sinestro, of course, had escaped, his Corps not leaving him stranded on Oa for long. And Hal hadn't been there, hadn't been rescued because he was being tortured to prove a point to the Guardians. It was fitting payment, he thought, for his cowardice.

Going back to Earth took more strength of will than he thought he'd had left. Prostrating himself in from of Batman and offering his help was such a monumental effort that he felt exhausted, after it. But each step was more proof to himself, to the slowly rebuilding self-confidence inside of him, that he was making the right choices.

Until after. Until Earth was as safe as he could make it and space beckoned him with a distress call from OA of all places--someone was attacking. The Sinestro Corps was attacking. He'd known Sinestro wouldn't be idle, but he hadn't realized just what sort of crucial knowledge he had taken with him when he'd escaped.

Hal headed straight for Sinestro. Who was...dressed in a white uniform, wearing a symbol Hal didn't recognize. So were his Corps around him, the yellows seemed to be cannon-fodder to take out the Greens, the Whites were going after the Guardians themselves. Hal wondered how long Sinestro had been planning this, tried to ignore how much it hurt to know it had to have been a long term plan, one hidden from him the whole time he was in the Sinestro Corps.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to wear white after Labor Day?" Sinestro batted Hal's constructs aside like they were nothing, but it got his attention.

He looked Hal over, sneering at the Green Lantern symbol on his chest, the ring on his fingers. "They took you back? You had gotten better at deception, within my Corps, but I never knew you'd be good enough to fool the Guardians."

"Who said I was fooling anyone?"

Around them, the other Whites had moved in to fill the gap Sinestro had left, the slaughter of the Guardians continuing as one after one they weakened and fell. But Sinestro's attention was on Hal only, as it hadn't been in years. He couldn't believe.

"Aw, what's the matter, Sin? Now that I don't belong to you anymore, you want me?"

Sinestro barely reacted, but Hal was familiar enough with his expressions to see the shock on his face. "Is _that_ what this most recent betrayal was about, Jordan? Did you think I didn't _care_ whether you were in my Corps or not?" He floated closer. "Did you want me to find out and come for you? Drag you screaming from that mudball you call home and force you to submit to my will again?" 

Now the shock had been replaced by heat, Sinestro's eyes burning into Hal, making him feel too exposed in the middle of the battlefield.

" _What_? If you think I was hung up on YOU when I finally got my life back together--"

Sinestro moved quickly, breaking through the shield Hal hastily created, and suddenly there were too-strong hands on his head, a body burning with unfamiliar energies pressed close.

"I thought they had killed you," Sinestro stated, as if they weren't a few inches from kissing. "They had paraded that information in front of me, made me think it was done in private so I would always be wondering just how they'd done it, tear myself apart thinking of what tortures they had visited upon you."

"I--why would they--that's..." Hal wanted to say that wasn't the Guardians' MO, that that was more something SINESTRO would have done to an enemy, but he'd seen the Guardians' cruelty before, didn't doubt they'd take pleasure (no matter how much they'd deny such) in breaking Sinestro more.

"And instead I find they've done worse. They've fed you their lies, stripped you of yourself. I can see it, the mess they've made of your head."

Wishful thinking, Hal thought. Sinestro making excuses because he couldn't fathom Hal turning his back on him again. Or...or not. Or the Guardians had fucked with his mind and made sure Hal couldn't even remember that. There'd been so much pain, so much confusion, during his 'rehabilitation'. Maybe....

"...Thaal, I...."

"Don't speak." Sinestro's lips brushed his, and then he was gone, moving back towards the remaining Guardians. "Stay there. We will fix you once I have taken care of this scum."

 

Hal looked around, but no one was paying attention to him. The other Green Lanterns too busy fighting off the Sinestro Corps, who he figured had orders to leave him be. He almost fled, multiple times. He almost helped the other GLs, too, a few times. He thought if one of the others had been among them...John, Kyle, even Guy, he wouldn't have been able to stop himself from helping. But this Corps wasn't the one he'd known, the Sinestro Corps members disturbingly more familiar to him now.

 

"And here I worried you couldn't follow orders anymore."

The white of Sinestro's uniform was stained with blood, and worse, and the look on his face was that of utmost satisfaction. He held out a hand towards Hal, but when Hal hesitated to take it he used a construct to force him closer, grabbing his hand. "As _nostalgic_ as it might make me feel, if you ever turn to the Green Lanterns again, I will not be so forgiving."

"I can't say I won't," he muttered, as the White construct around him enveloped them both, creating enough of a safe environment for Sinestro to strip the ring off Hal. "You were hiding things from me the whole time. Manipulating me. You can't expect me _not_ to be pissed off at you."

"You can be as angry as you please with me, attempt whatever sort of payback you feel is necessary. But you will never betray me so blatantly again."

_Fool me twice_...Hal thought, letting out a laugh that was closer to hysteria than humor. "Right, well, I expect answers, Sinestro. I _don't_ like being kept in the dark."

Sinestro nodded, though Hal doubted he was taking the demand seriously. He held up a Yellow ring, not Hal's, which had been destroyed, but one that resonated in that old, familiar way. "You can take this ring and become what you were before. And you'll have the same freedoms, the same ability to work against me, as you had. Or...."

Hal sucked in a breath, leaning closer. "Or?"

"Or you can wear a White ring. But know that it will be a much shorter leash. I will not allow one of my elite Lanterns to question me in public, I will not allow your insubordinations for all to see."

"In public," Hal repeated, cocking his head to the side. "In private...?"

"I do expect your loyalty and obedience, and that you will act as a loyal and obedient Lantern, but I want _you_. In private, you can be as much of a brat as always."

Now there was a White ring in Sinestro's other hand, the power radiating off of it more than Hal thought he'd ever felt in a single object. He glanced between the two, then back to Sinestro's face, and then to Oa beyond their quiet little space above the battle. The Green Lantern Corps laid in ruins, the Guardians dead, and Hal sincerely doubted there'd be anything to come back to for him in a very, very long time.

He reached out, realizing he was still as much of a coward as before.


End file.
